and integrity of the
unbeliever: his unbelief dooms him. No matter for the natural
depravity and iniquity of the believer: his faith in the atoning
sacrifice saves him. The Judge will say to the orthodox, on his
right, "You may have been impure and cruel, lied, cheated, hated
your neighbor, rolled in vice and crime, but you have believed in
me, in my divinity: therefore, come, ye blessed, inherit my
kingdom." To the heretical, on his left, he will say, "You may
have been pure and kind, sought the truth, self sacrificingly
served your fellow men, fulfilled every moral duty in your power,
but you have not believed in me, in my deity, and my blood:
therefore, depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." Such is a
fit verdict to be pronounced by the avenging Warrior depicted in
the Apocalypse, from whose mouth issues a two edged sword, to cut
his enemies asunder; who sits on a white charger, in a vesture
dipped in blood, with a bow and a crown, and goes forth conquering
and to conquer; whose eyes are flames of fire; who treads his
rejecters in the wine press of his wrath until their blood reaches
to the horse bridles. It was the natural reflection of an age
filled with the most murderous hatreds and persecutions, based on
political and dogmatic distinctions. But how contradictory it is
to the teachings of Jesus himself! How utterly irreconcilable it
is with the image and spirit of that meek and lowly Son of Man who
said that he "came not to destroy men's lives but to save them;"
who declared, "of mine own self I can do nothing;" who modestly
deprecated all personal homage, asking, "Why callest thou me
good?" who sat with the publican, and forgave the harlot, and
denounced bigotry in many an immortal breathing of charity; and
who, even in his final agony, pardoned and prayed for his
murderers! What reason is there for supposing that he who was so
infinitely gentle, unselfish, forgiving, when on earth, will
undergo such a fiendish metamorphosis in his exaltation and
return? It is the most monstrous, the most atrocious travesty of
the truth that ever was perpetrated by the superstitious ignorance
and audacity of the human mind. It is a direct transference into
the Godhead of the most egotistical and hateful feelings of a bad
man. No good man who had been ever so grossly misconceived,
vilified, and wronged, if he saw his enemies prostrate in
submissive terror at his feet, perfectly powerless before his
authority, could bear to